Vigil veterans land at Crytek

Vigil was one of the major casualties of the THQ auction last week as it failed to find a potential buyer.

After Darksiders developer Vigil failed to find a buyer through the auction of THQ's properties last week, 36 of the orphaned studio's staff have now found a new home at Crytek.

Joining Crytek's new office in Austin Texas, the move includes Vigil general manager and co-owner David Adams, who will head up the new US studio as chief executive.

'I’m thrilled to be a part of the newest Crytek studio, which will boast some of the brightest development talent in the industry,' said Adams.

During last week's THQ auction, Crytek snapped up the rights to the Homefront series for approximately $540,000. The studio was already developing Homefront 2 and now has the option to either publish it itself or shop around for another publisher.

Head-quartered in Frankfurt, Germany, The Austin studio will be the ninth office that Crytek has opened with the company now spanning Europe, Asia and North America.

'Crytek has always enjoyed a special relationship with gamers and business partners in North America, so establishing a permanent presence in the US was a natural step,' said Crytek chief executive Cevat Yerli.

Earlier this month, Crytek also opened up a studio in Istanbul, Turkey. The studio intends to focus on the company's Warface and GFACE brands and to support the growth of its free-to-play operations.

The fate of the remainder of Vigil is still uncertain. Last week, former THQ president Jason Rubin expressed his regret that the Darksiders developer failed to find a bidder in an interview with Game Informer.

The studio was apparently not able to build any interest in buyers as, having only just released Darksiders 2, they were the furthest away from the release of their next title, which to make matters worse was also a new untested IP.